The New York Times Reveals That 18 Servings of an Energy Drink Might Be Excessive

In case you are not alarmed yet by the threat that insufficiently regulated energy drinks pose to the nation, The New York Timestries a new angle:

Among the latest entrants in the energy industry's caffeine race is a pocket-size squeeze bottle called Mio Energy. Each half-teaspoon serving of Mio, which is sold by Kraft Foods, releases 60 milligrams of caffeine in a beverage, the amount in a six-ounce cup of coffee.

Actually, depending on the type of coffee and how it is made, that six-ounce cup might contain twice as much caffeine as one serving of Mio Energy. But wait:

One size of the bottle, which users can repeatedly squeeze, contains 18 servings, or 1,060 milligrams, of caffeine—more than enough, health specialists say, to sicken children and some adults, and even send some of them to the hospital.

Yes, and if you drink 18 espressos, you'll be ingesting something like 1,800 milligrams of caffeine. If you swallow all 60 caplets in a bottle of maximum-strength No Doz (scandalously available without a prescription), you'll get 12,000 milligrams of caffeine, which is 11 times as scary as the scenario sketched by the Times.

As I mentioned on Monday, the trigger for the latest outbreak of caffeine-related anxiety was a lawsuit filed by the parents of a 14-year-old girl with a genetic vulnerability who died of heart arrhythmia after drinking two 24-ounce cans of a Monster energy drink. Each of those cans contained 240 milligrams of caffeine, 90 fewer than a 16-ounce cup of Starbucks coffee.

Bruce Goldberger, a toxicologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, complains to the Times that the FDA's approach to energy drinks "has been laissez-faire" and wonders, "What is it going to take to cause them to take action?" I don't know. Maybe another media-fed panic, like the one Goldberger helped set off as a critic of Four Loko?

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I pre-made a vodka drink for a Christmas party a few years back. poured half back into an empty juice bottle. when the serving pitcher was low, i topped it off from the juice bottle. a few guests saw me doing that and thought it was just cranberry and added more vodka to their drinks. made for an interesting evening.

I was in San Antonio last week and got a couple of margiritas at an off the beaten track Mexican place I stumbled across. I’m not sure if they used a proper recipe, but I am sure that they were delicious and I was buzzed after only 2.

I’m a full fledged laissez-faire guy on this issue, too, Jacob, but you gotta admit its easier to squeeze several doses of Mio Energy into your beverage than to drink (let Lone pay for) several cups of Starbucks

I’m a full fledged laissez-faire guy on this issue, too, Jacob, but you gotta admit its easier to squeeze several doses of Mio Energy into your beverage than to drink (let Lone pay for) several cups of Starbucks

A Venti is 24 ounces, so it’s equivalent to 8 of the Mio Energy drops. I’ve certainly seen people have 2 Venties in a morning. Is there any evidence that anyone puts 18 drops of the Mio stuff in a beverage?

Telecommuting will be required. Most of our jobs these days are office jobs anyway, right? The only people who work jobs that actually require them to do anything outside are icky low wage blue collar types anyway, and who gives a shit about them. /sarc (in case it wasn’t obvious before)

Yes, and if you drink 18 espressos, you’ll be ingesting something like 1,800 milligrams of caffeine.

It’s extremely difficult to drink 18 espressos in one sitting, regardless of the caffeine effects. The nannies do have a valid point when saying that more traditional caffeine ingestion methods are essentially impossible to OD with because the caffeine in them is much more diluted.

As for the caffeine pills, yes they are potentially dangerous. If you’re a nanny stater and think people must be protected from harming themselves with dangerous things that they should be aware are dangerous if used improperly, then it’s totally consistent to oppose No Doz.

Why is it extremely difficult to drink 18 espressos in one sitting? They are very small. They certainly wouldn’t fill you up. Of course, virtually no one actually does this, but there’s also no evidence that anyone is putting 18 drops of the Mio Energy in their beverages either.

first they came for my psudophedrine,which fixed my allergies….then they came for my four loco…which helped me come down from my 3 screw top cans of monster daily night shift employment grind….now they are after my MIO????WTF???does my government hate me or something?? Im just surprised coca cola aint all over this…..those small squeeze bottles run me about $4 each…same price as large can of monster….18 squeezes..(actually i get 20 to 22 squeezes myself)should last me about 4 days….its hella lot cheaper and not carbonated…..FUCKING GOVT!!!! GET OUT OF MY SIPPY CUP!!!!!